Robbers armed with pickaxe handles smashed their way into a Sandwell petrol station and snatched cash.

Five thugs struck at the Asda petrol station in Great Bridge and terrorised the female cashier.

Three of the raiders used weapons to get into one the site’s drive-up kiosks where customers pay for their fuel through a window. 

West Midlands Police spokesman Steve Gearey said that the men drove up to the petrol station at 5.40pm on Thursday, and later abandoned the vehicle used in the raid at a busy Wednesbury traffic island.

“The offenders arrived in a silver-coloured Mercedes, where three got out of the vehicle and approached the kiosk while the other two remained with the car,” he said.

“The glass door to the kiosk was smashed, the lone female member of staff was threatened and a quantity of cash was snatched.”

Mr Gearey said the vehicle was driven along the A41 Black Country Route before being abandoned at the Patent Island in Wednesbury, about one mile away from the scene of the robbery.